Research and analysis

Intellectual Property Office - research priorities 2022 - 2023

Published 28 April 2022

Since 2010 the Economics, Research and Evidence (ERE) team at the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) has published over 100 research reports involving leading experts from the UK and around the world. This dedicated team of economists, researchers and analysts are working to:

• build data on the role of Intellectual Property (IP) in the UK economy.

• link IP data to business data to better understand incentives and impacts.

• tackle the gaps in empirical evidence and evaluate the impact of the key policy priorities for the IPO including the Innovation Strategy; the Counter Infringement Strategy; the Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Futures work stream; and the Economics of Streaming.

• support IP operations through analysis of patent pendency, and demand forecasting.

The team continues to work closely with industry and academia to build support for building a better evidence base nationally and internationally, in partnership with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the EU Intellectual Property Office, the European Patent Office (EPO), The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), the Canadian IPO, IP Australia and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

The research priorities are an indicative programme of work, which may be subject to change depending upon policy needs. There will also be a programme of internal analysis, which will include informing the development of trade policy.

This is an evolving programme of work and the IPO welcomes expressions of interest from any potential suppliers in undertaking research in this space, or in helping deliver achievable and realistic research specifications. The IPO is keen to build partnerships with industry and academia wherever possible to maximise the influence that evidence and data can have on IP policy making, nationally and internationally.

In the development of this work the team would like to thank all those that have contributed their time, knowledge, and experience to support the IPO’s objective of balanced, independent, and relevant research. Special thanks go to the IPO’s Research Expert Advisory Group (REAG), chaired by Catriona Hammer.

Indicative list of research

Title	Outline
On-Line copyright infringement tracker	Longitudinal survey of 5000 representative people 12+ to better understand consumer behaviours around digital content
Counterfeit goods tracker	Longitudinal survey of 5000 representative people 16+ to better understand consumer behaviours around physical goods
Economics of streaming	Further research into issues relating to music streaming
Trade Secrets	How does the SME community use trade secrets?
The Future of IP	This will include building the evidence base on IP licensing and future tech; and consideration of the opportunities and challenges of the Metaverse to the IP framework
IP and innovation	Contribution to the Enterprise Research Centre (ERC) to undertake research on innovation.
The cost of IP crime	Development of a methodology (or methodologies) to measure the Economic Impact of IP Crime in the UK - online and offline
OECD Update of the economic impact of trade in counterfeit goods	Last updated in 2019 - financial contribution to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
Evaluation framework for the Counter- Infringement strategy	Delivery of an independent evaluation framework for the Counter Infringement Strategy